Offering a foreigner's view on Korean TV and movies

What Happens to My Family – Week 5

Is that a newfound respect and admiration for Kang Shim, in Tae Joo’s eyes, that I’m seeing? Tae Joo is proving to be less capable in times of crisis than Kang Shim is, but I’m in no way denying his capabilities as of yet. In any case, I’m loving that Tae Joo is, no matter how begrudgingly he may be, recognizing Kang Shim’s ablities.

Don’t you just love it when Kang Shim and Tae Joo are together in the same screen? They both hate each other so much yet because he’s her superior, and she’s a staff whom his father can’t do without, they can’t do anything to each other, except to pretend to be civil. Oh the stress.

I love how Kang Shim just jumps at any chances to irritate Tae Joo, and this time round it is to force him to share the same table, especially when she saw that he ordered steam fish (?) that’s too much for one person, and she was having a craving for it. Tae Joo just refuses to eat with someone, much less with Kang Shim, and he moved to another table which happens to be behind her. He has no choice but to eat what she ordered, because Kang Shim has already helped herself to what he ordered. I really love their dynamics.

Kang Shim is under the Chairman’s order to get Tae Joo to agree to the Chairman’s remarriage, and she managed to cajole Tae Joo to reach an agreement with Eun Ho (only to know actually Eun Ho doesn’t like the idea of his Mom getting married, but it’s not something the sons can stop).

Dal Bong, Seo Wool, Eun Ho

Actually there’s not much Seo Wool-Dal Bong interactions this week, mainly because Dal Bong is upset about Seo Wool joining Eun Ho’s party, and the two of them are giving each other silent treatments. Eun Ho takes the chance to get closer to Seo Wool, creating the opportunity of skinship (as seen above), which gets seen by Dal Bong.

Eun Ho is not feigning sickness, and it’s a good thing (okay fine, it’s in the script) that Seo Wool decided to check on him before going home after work, because he lost consciousness in his office. Dal Bong waited for her all night outside her room, calling her phone but all his calls went unanswered (because Seo Wool dropped her phone in Eun Ho’s office).

Kang Jae and Hyo Jin

In the true Kang Jae style, he drops the news of Hyo Jin’s parents’ decision of holding the formal meeting between the parents, during breakfast (if I never remember wrongly, it’s on the next day). No one in the Cha family is happy about this impending wedding, Kang Jae included. So why get married, I wonder.

Hyo Jin decides to pay a visit to the Cha family members, first by meeting Kang Shim, only to get snubbed in the face. Then she drops by the neighborhood of the Cha’s, where the loansharks who’re after Young Seo (Aunt’s daughter) are creating a ruckus. She’s visibly shaken by how…different (middle class, “unrefined” in her mother’s words) her future in-laws are from her own family.

No matter what, Hyo Jin pays a formal visit to her future father-in-law, which Kang Jae agreed to rather grudingly.

Dad

I love how Dal Bong is the only child who’s actually concerned and protective about Dad, despite being the jobless son whom Dad has to worry about. He gets mad at the loansharks who were actually looking for Young Seo, but somehow pushed Dad to the ground. He fights them, but ends up getting punched in the face by Kang Jae, just because Hyo Jin is witnessing the hullabaloo. Argh.

Despite Kang Jae’s request to Dad (order seems more befitting for Kang Jae’s tone, actually) to take a cab to the venue of meeting Hyo Jin’s parents, being frugal, Dad and Aunt decided that they’re most comfortable taking public transportation instead. Not only did they get lost trying to find the way to the hotel, because of Aunt’s decision to cut across the lawn to the main lobby of the hotel, Dad and Aunt got caught in activated sprinklers. Talk about bad timing.

Others

Young Seo is the shit-stirrer of the family, first coming back to Korea secretly, bringing with her a debt of $150,000 accumulated from gambling. I like her husband actually, who seems really filial to Aunt, and also loves Young Seo (despite all her flaws). I foresee Young Seo creating alot of unnecessary troubles for the Cha family. And oh, I can’t wait to see the bickerings between her and Kang Shim.